It’s Never Our Turn: Canada’s Incremental Disability Policy Path

Arguably, the high-water mark in Canadian disability policy in the past quarter century is the 1998 document In Unison: A Canadian Approach to Disability Issues . This document elaborated the vision of full inclusion for person with disabilities in all facets of Canadian society and outlined three building blocks in need of attention: disability, employment, and income supports. For persons with disabilities, In Unison held out much hope for significant policy changes. Yet policy changes have either been slow to come such as the 2019 Accessible Canada Act or found to be grossly inadequate as is the case with the 2024 Canadian Disability Benefit. Given significant advancements in other fields such as early learning and child care over the same time frame, persons with disabilities have gone from wondering “When’s our turn?” to “It’s never our turn.” This article examines Canadian disability policy in the party platforms, budgets, and ministerial mandate letters of the Justin Trudeau Liberal government (2015–current), an era that began with much promise but has left many in the disability community disillusioned.